Applicability of standards for evaluations of educational programs, projects and materials in an international setting: Qualitative research

Qualitative studies are much more the practice in Europe and increasingly elsewhere than in the United States. For an international audience, therefore, there needs to be much greater emphasis on qualitative techniques than there is in the standards report. The most difficult ethical problem arises from the conflict between the right to privacy of research subjects and the right to know of audiences. By its nature, qualitative research focuses on the particular, the detailed analysis of the specific incident. It is therefore often difficult to conceal the identity of the individual organisations and people concerned. Even a confidential report might work to the detriment of the subjects studied. Published reports pose the same problem. Have subjects the right to have material they believe to their disadvantage excised from a report even if that renders the report valueless? There are two technical points in the standards document that should be amplified. The first concerns the verification of data. We need to specify procedures to ensure credibility for qualitative studies. The second concern is the specification of quantitative techniques for the analysis of qualitative data. The statement in the standards document is too weak. We need to define much more clearly the steps that should be taken to ensure that qualitative data can be tested rigorously. Finally, there is the problem of collusion, the danger that the qualitative evaluators will select from their material the data which are in conformity with their own predilictions or presuppositions, the expectations of their audience, or the requirements of their sponsors. This problem may be acute in some parts of the world. To be of maximum international value, the standards report needs to be extended and to pay much greater attention to problems arising with qualitative evaluation.     

Parents' searches for child care and the design of information services

This article reports selected findings from a study of the process by which urban parents search for child care. Analyses of interview data indicate that (a) parents used informal sources of information to a considerably greater extent than formal sources, (b) the general pattern was to begin the search with relatives and close friends and gradually move out to more peripheral ties, (c) there does not appear to be an effective informal system of neighbors or community persons who matched parents with child care providers, and (d) there was no single or several sources that were outstanding in effectiveness for a large proportion of parents. The article sets forth implications of these data for the design of child care information and referral services in urban settings.     

论华盛顿近东政策研究所的起源与影响

1985年成立的华盛顿近东政策研究所是美国国内从事中东问题研究的专门机构。20年来，该研究所为美国政府提供了维护美国中东利益的建议和策略，对美国中东政策具有重要影响。了解华盛顿近东政策研究所的成立与发展，对研究美国中东政策的制定、实施和发展趋势都有一定的参考价值。     

整体考察美国的中东政策(上)

无论在冷战时期还是后冷战时代,中东地区因其拥有丰富的能源和特殊的地缘政治地位而成为美国全球战略中的重要部分.依照美国中东政策的源起、美在中东的利益、冷战和后冷战时期的美中东政策等历史线索和逻辑关系,本文对美国中东政策进行了系统梳理与整体考察,构建了"分析美国中东政策的框架".其中,作者多年前提出的"考察美国中东政策的坐标"在实证研究中是可行且有效的.冷战后,中东成为美国全球战略重点"两洋战略"的"连接点"和"支撑点",具有"不可替代性",从而与"两洋战略"遥相呼应,构成强有力的"哑铃态势",加强了"两洋战略".此外,美国发动了海湾战争、阿富汗战争和伊拉克战争等三场有重大影响的战争,进一步说明中东地区对美来说不仅有着无法割舍的利益需求,而且还是实现其战略目标的重要舞台.     

整体考察美国的中东政策(下)

无论在冷战时期还是后冷战时代,中东地区因其拥有丰富的能源和特殊的地缘政治地位而成为美国全球战略中的重要部分.依照美国中东政策的源起、美在中东的利益、冷战和后冷战时期的美中东政策等历史线索和逻辑关系,本文对美国中东政策进行了系统梳理与整体考察,构建了"分析美国中东政策的框架".其中,作者多年前提出的"考察美国中东政策的坐标"在实证研究中是可行且有效的.冷战后,中东成为美国全球战略重点"两洋战略"的"连接点"和"支撑点",具有"不可替代性",从而与"两洋战略"遥相呼应,构成强有力的"哑铃态势",加强了"两洋战略".此外,美国发动了海湾战争、阿富汗战争和伊拉克战争等三场有重大影响的战争,进一步说明中东地区对美来说不仅有着无法割舍的利益需求,而且还是实现其战略目标的重要舞台.     

Adoptive parents' hostility toward their adopted children

This paper focuses on the latent, underlying hostility that we feel exists between adoptive parents and their adopted children. The focus of this study is on the adolescent adoptee who is struggling with a “double” identity-crisis. Also addressed are countertransference feelings between the adoptive parent and the adolescent adoptee.     

Evaluating a human service program: Employing the judicial evaluation model

The emergence of adversarial models as an approach to formative and summative evaluations is gaining recognition among educational research professionals. The implementation of the Judicial Evaluation Model (JEM), as described in this article, is the first application to a human service employment and training program. Evaluation questions raised within the study were designed to assess the efficacy of linkage arrangements between the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) prime sponsors and education service providers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The four stages of the JEM and its application to CETA are discussed, the panel findings are reported along with noted pitfalls and strengths, suggested guidelines for implementation, and a few recommendations.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis by Ina R. Friedman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1990. 176 pages. Reviewed by Samuel Totten.     

The effects of conflict,quality, and time on small group information use and behavior in evaluative decision making situations

Graduate students simulated school board members making decisions about educational programs. Situation contexts within the program evaluation reports were varied by conflict (high, low), quality (high, low), and time (long, short). Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) of the qualitative measures m the 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design indicated significant results at the .01 level. The quality of decisions affect support for program continuation. Interactions of conflict and quality affected need for more information and more time in decision making. A conflict and time interaction affected preference to talk to other board members. Changes in situational contexts affected information need and use in small, decision making groups.     

Leverage and evaluation effectiveness

Weaknesses in evaluations often can be traced to structural limitations in the positions of evaluation researchers. Conventional human relations techniques often are an insufficient basis for securing strong support for evaluation research. Strategies for increasing evaluation research leverage are reviewed. Alignment of evaluation research with regulatory bodies with authority to suspend public program expenditures is advocated. Several likely obstacles in the development of the regulatory evaluation model are anticipated and addressed.     

Ecologically defining the mistreatment of adolescents

Ecologically defined, the problem of adolescent/family conflict for otherwise “normal” families is a reaction to crisis in the life cycle of the family. A family's success in weathering the crisis is indicated by their successful maturation to the next stage of the cycle; we can assume that in such cases the ratio of stress to coping ability was such that the family could integrate that stress. When conflict escalates to abuse and neglect, however, the indication is that stress has outstripped coping ability, and the implication is for stress-reducing intervention quite unlike the standard existing interventions in either the juvenile justice or child welfare systems, which negatively label family members, make them adversaries, fragment their coping capabilities, and even subject them at times to situations worse than those for which they needed help originally. The interventions called for are those that support beleaguered families; that are based on conceptualizations of people as adaptable and capable of solving their own problems if they are given adequate supports.     

The goal-oriented approach to evaluation: Critique and case study from drug abuse treatment

The specification and measurement of program goals remains central to most evaluation research strategies, yet procedures for implementing this approach are not well-articulated. It is the purpose of this discussion to describe a stepwise procedure for programmatic goal setting and monitoring used in a demonstration drug treatment program for women. Three implementation steps are described: (a) goal setting, (b) checking for consistency, (c) monitoring and feedback. The advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed and useful complementary measurement strategies are suggested.     

Inpatient psychiatric treatment of the difficult child: Common practices and their ethical implications

This article reviews and discusses the available research literature pertaining to the prevalence of seclusion and restraint procedures in inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities for children and adolescence. The rationales for use, potential effects, and factors found to influence the application of these more extreme clinical interventions are considered. The author suggests that the supposed therapeutic function of these types of practices has not been substantiated and their implementation can vary widely from one setting to another. Results from several studies suggest that clearly defined criteria for use and more observational studies of prevalence and precipitant factors could considerably refine these procedures and reduce potential abuses. The psychopharmacologic approach to the treatment of difficult children is examined as a sophisticated counteraggression strategy which has yet to demonstrate therapeutic efficacy. These clinical procedures, which are utilized in scores of inpatient settings, generate serious ethical questions for the health professional concerned with the legal rights of those minors labeled as deviant members of families or the society at large.     

Social policy planning in a federal structure: A social learning strategy

Current social welfare policy planning reflects an inadequate sense of the problems to be solved and an incentive structure which discourages responsible decision making. Proceeding from overly simple cause and effect models, social welfare policies are designed with detailed administrative regulations to insure uniformity and regularity of behavior across the states. When problems are not solved, policy makers focus on the failures of personnel to follow all the detailed regulations. This leads to additional efforts to enforce compliance. There is evidence that implementation personnel consistently and purposively do stretch or ignore regulations in order to service clients. An alternative to further detailed regulations then is to use the autonomy of state units in the federal structure by eliminating negative incentives to innovation and creating incentives to experiment with alternative programs. As a social learning strategy this would encourage innovation and make it possible to learn from the experience of personnel who daily confront the realities of welfare problems and the large array of administrative details.     

An industrial application of meta-evaluation

This article describes the efforts of an industrial training organization to increase the number and to improve the quality of “follow-up” evaluations (i.e., evaluations in terms of post-training job performance). Efforts included an analysis of the problems encountered in evaluating training, development and implementation of corrective actions, and an evaluation of the corrective actions. The project illustrates the process of “meta-evaluations.”